Trump Diesel Deal with Putin Widens Gap with Kyiv and Brussels

The United States Treasury issued a temporary general licence on 9 October that suspends sanctions on Russian diesel exports until 7 April 2027. The move followed a phone call between President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin in which Trump said Russia had agreed to supply more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel immediately, 500,000 tonnes in November and a further one million tonnes shortly thereafter. Putin confirmed Russia’s willingness to supply oil and petroleum products to the US and global markets but did not specify volumes.

Trump announced the arrangement on Truth Social the same evening. He wrote that a further three million tonnes could follow depending on the condition of Russian refineries, which Ukrainian drones have struck repeatedly in recent months. US diesel prices had reached $6.28 a gallon on Thursday according to AAA, a level that has raised costs for farmers ahead of the midterm elections on 3 November. Russia had extended its own ban on diesel exports until the end of October amid domestic shortages caused by those strikes.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the waiver a gift to Putin and an investment in a war that must be ended rather than prolonged. He said his negotiators had been used as a smokescreen. A Ukrainian delegation was in Miami meeting Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to discuss an energy ceasefire and Black Sea arrangements when the US side informed them of the pending sanctions relief. Zelenskyy said the team learned of the call with Putin while the talks were under way.

Trump responded on 10 October by telling reporters that Ukraine should get a new president who can make a deal. He has pressed both sides to stop attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure. On Sunday he wrote that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to an energy ceasefire with immediate effect. Neither Kyiv nor Moscow confirmed any such agreement. Zelenskyy told the Warsaw Security Forum that Russia continued to strike Ukrainian energy sites after the announcement and that Ukraine had refrained from hitting Russian energy facilities since Sunday.

European officials rejected the deal. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Ukraine’s war funding would be central to this week’s European Council summit. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas stated that ministers had adopted nearly 1,600 new sanctions listings targeting Russia’s military-industrial complex, the largest expansion of the list since the war began. The measures freeze assets inside Europe and bar EU citizens and companies from dealing with the listed entities. She said now is not the time to ease pressure on Moscow.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Monday that Russia could supply as much as 3.5 million tonnes of diesel a month to global markets by the end of the year, matching pre-crisis levels. Russia produces about 5.8 million tonnes of diesel a month. Ukrainian strikes have reduced refining capacity, and Moscow had imposed export restrictions to prioritise domestic supply. The US licence applies only to diesel; other Russian assets remain frozen.

The sequence has opened the widest public rift between Washington and Kyiv in months. Zelenskyy has said gifts to Putin will not lead to peace. European governments have reiterated support for continued sanctions and for Ukraine’s ability to strike military targets inside Russia. No public confirmation has emerged of any binding energy truce, and Russian forces reported drone strikes on Ukrainian targets in the days after Trump’s Sunday post. The diesel waiver remains in force until April 2027 unless revoked.